The Syracuse Symphony, in an ambitious season, took on perhaps its greatest challenge at Friday's concert -- Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde," Song of Earth -- and brought it off in a powerful, deeply moving performance.

In 1908, Mahler, aware that his death was not far off, began to compose the Lied. He drew on German translations of ancient Chinese poems to go with his feelings and his music.

"Dark is life, dark is death" goes the refrain from the first segment.

The Lied is an elegy, of course.

But far from being morose, it is filled with the energies of one who regrets the brevity of ordinary earthly delights, yet still revels in their beauty. In Mahler's intense fusion of words and music, life and death don't diminish each other, but heighten each other.

Like Chinese art, the poems that Mahler chose are spare in detail -- a footbridge, a bird, a galloping horse -- but sharply evoke their subjects, like youth, love, nature, wine, friendship and, of course, music.

Guest artists John Mac Master, tenor, and Nancy Maultsby, mezzo-soprano, bring out both the lyric beauty and the dramatic conflicts in their roles -- and the songs are dramatic roles, not just musical settings of poetry.

In a CD of the Lied, the orchestra is the center of attention. But when the singers are visible on stage, even when silent -- each steps forward to sing one of the six songs, in turn -- you get a sustained feeling of the drama Mahler intended: the lone soul wrestling with its plight.

Mahler's score calls for gentler orchestral moments when the soprano is singing, but he wants the tenor and orchestra to vie a bit for primacy. Mac Master has a powerful voice -- no question -- but the orchestra could pull back a bit during the louder passages.

That the Lied in this performance (like Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" at a previous concert) has sharpness of definition and plenty of momentum, even in convoluted passages, is due to the clarity of conductor Daniel Hege's concepts. He lets nothing get perfunctory or muddled.

One can't single out any of the sections for excellence. This is a powerful and balanced orchestra.

My favorites? In "About Youth," Mac Master creates a picture of a perfect -- but fragile -- day for young pals.

Maultsby brings the last song, "The Farewell," to its close, ever more softly singing the word "ewig" (forever) until the Lied dies into silence.

The first half of the program is a zestful performance of Zoltan Kodaly's Suite from "Hary Janos." Guest artist Laurence Kaptain on the cimbalom -- something like a hammered dulcimer -- creates the wholehearted folk sound in the tale of a tavern braggart who tells lies about winning the war against Napoleon, as he spoofs the self-importance of the aristocracy.